GATE Percentile Calculator
Calculate your GATE percentile from your All India Rank and total candidates appeared.
GATE Percentile Calculator
Find your GATE percentile based on your All India Rank and the total number of candidates who appeared.
Total Candidates by Year (Approx.)
| Year | Total Candidates |
|---|---|
| 2026 | ~10,00,000 |
| 2025 | ~9,50,000 |
| 2024 | ~8,50,000 |
| 2023 | ~7,00,000 |
Understanding GATE Percentile
Percentile tells you the percentage of candidates you performed better than. A 95th percentile means you scored higher than 95% of all candidates who appeared for your paper.
The formula is simple: Percentile = ((N - rank) / N) x 100, where N is the total number of candidates and rank is your All India Rank.
IITs use your AIR directly for admissions through COAP, not the percentile. PSUs use your GATE score (out of 1000). Percentile is mainly useful for understanding your relative position in the candidate pool.
Read our percentile guide for worked examples, historical candidate data, and what each percentile range qualifies you for. For a comparison of all four GATE numbers, see marks vs score vs rank explained.
Total Candidates by Year
| Year | Registered | Appeared | Appearance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 10,46,000 | 7,82,000 | 74.8% |
| 2025 | 9,65,000 | 7,17,000 | 74.3% |
| 2024 | 8,82,000 | 6,52,000 | 73.9% |
| 2023 | 6,99,000 | 5,16,000 | 73.8% |
| 2022 | 8,72,000 | 5,97,000 | 68.5% |
| 2021 | 6,87,000 | 4,85,000 | 70.6% |
Use the 'appeared' count (not registered) when calculating your percentile - only candidates who actually took the exam count toward your ranking. Note these are total GATE numbers across all papers. For paper-specific percentile, use the candidate count for your paper (available on the GATE results portal after results are declared).
From Percentile to College Admission
GATE percentile is not directly used in admissions. IITs admit through COAP (Common Offer Acceptance Portal) using your All India Rank, not percentile. NITs and IIITs use CCMT (Centralized Counselling for M.Tech) which also uses AIR. Your percentile helps you estimate where you stand, but the actual admission depends on your rank, category, and the number of seats in your preferred program.
For PSU recruitment, companies use your GATE score (out of 1000), not percentile or rank. Each PSU sets its own score cutoff. See our marks vs score vs rank guide for current PSU cutoffs.